Wire Wheels?

[60's Sol]

Does anyone know if wire wheels are available for the Sol? Would they be able to take the torque of the GXP? How about wheels that sort of give the appearance of wire, like 12 spoke or more? I like the British look, but haven't found suitable wheels yet.

[LatinVenom]

We have touch this subject on a few occasions.
To my knowledge there is nothing available for our car.
We have done photoshops etc to see what it would look like but that's about it.

[John Richards]

I have these:

They are from tirerack.com. OZ 35th Anniversary (OZ makes Lamborghini wheels) $300 each. 20 spokes. Some words of caution: they are 5 lbs heavier each than stock, and the inward offset is not as steep (38mm instead of 55mm), so the tire bulge sticks out 1/8" beyond the wheel well. Even with that, I love them, the handling is great and I still chirp the tires going into first and second gear. And of course the positive comments are non-stop.

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/Wheel...lar=Base+Model

[Lil'Oggi]

Dayton Wire Wheel is the company that makes the top line of wires. Everything else comes out of China and the rest of Asia. My info is that the Asian stuff is cheaper and comes without support and guarantee of fitment.

Dayton's wheels are fully guaranteed to fit and work and hold up. They most certainly can withstand the Solstice GXP's torque. Dayton also has a bolt adapter that will allow the use of real knock-off hubs.

OK- that's the end of the good news portion. Now for the bad. Apparently, the design of our cars, which optimizes the placement of disc brakes and calipers based on handling requirements and other good considerations, does not take the unique constuction of wire wheels into account. The spokes would rip your calipers off, and at present, there is no workaround. Cast or machined wheels can have a groove cut into their backsides to accomodate small obstructions, or a different, better fitting design can be used. With wire, you can't cut and there is no other design.

If we used 16" wheels it wouldn't be a problem. Even some 17's clear (barely). The 18's hit because the spokes stand taller and angle back more. I just found a filed patent that claims to have solved the problem. I forwarded that info to Dayton.

Here's what they look like painted, and on a hot rod.

[Lil'Oggi]

And here's a little Photoshop work to see what they might look like:

[David Dougherty]

Sure with there was an option for wire wheels but I've looked into it and there are none to be found.

Here's another look:



DD

[Deepbluegxp]

man those would be a pain in the "you know what" to clean

[birdliver]

I've talked with Dayton more than once and they have no interest in working out the problems ( Lil'Oggi addresses some issues in his post above) associated with developing wire wheels for our car. No question that they are a real pain to keep clean, but they really fit with the Sol picture in my opinion. I'm still hoping though, some newer BMWs and Jags do have a wire option.